June 18, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode of Fast Casual Nation, hosts Paul Barron and Cherryh Cansler sit down with Preet Paul Singh, partner of Houston-based bōl, to explore his fascinating journey from fine dining to fast casual. Singh shares how his team leveraged their culinary expertise from acclaimed restaurant Amrina to create two interconnected fast-casual concepts—bōl (Indian-inspired rice bowls and salads) and Pakpok Poe (elevated fried chicken)—while maintaining premium ingredients and building a scalable commissary model. From overcoming initial customer skepticism to developing a multi-tiered restaurant portfolio that includes fine dining, fast casual, and everything in between, Singh offers valuable insights on pricing strategy, operational efficiency, technology integration, and the future of fast-casual expansion for restaurant professionals looking to elevate their brands.
#FastCasualNation #RestaurantBusiness #FastCasual
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Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.
Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory
#FastCasualNation #RestaurantBusiness #FastCasual
Get Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/
Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.
Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of Fast Casual Nation, of course,
the podcast that started it all. Today we are flying
solo Share cancler is going to be joining me? Oh
wait a minute, I like Share. She's coming in right now.
Let me just drop her into the show.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Bam, All right.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yes, you're coming.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
All right.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
I don't know what the heck's going on, but we're
going to just go play and be with the phone.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Sometimes that's the way you got to do it is
you have to improvise. Speaking of improvisation, we have a
guest today that has done just that, and we're talking
about from fine dining to fast casual. This, of course,
is a concept out of Houston, Texas called Bowl, and
it's kind of interesting. When I first discovered it, I
was amazed first of all that this came in from
(00:46):
a fine dining concept group and what they were able
to do. So we asked Paulsing, our pre Paulsing, to
join us today. My name is Paul Baron. As the
(01:15):
early pioneer in fast casual, I've seen the industry evolve
from just a few operators to the most sought after
segment by consumers around the world. Now we're planning to
shape its future. Tap into decades of my expertise identifying
the emerging brands and tech winners in the space saber capital.
(01:37):
We'll be fueling the next generation of fast casual innovation.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
How are you breet awesome?
Speaker 5 (01:44):
I doing great, Thank you for having me excellent.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So we'll get into it directly with you. Sometimes Chare
and I will go back and forth share. We might
cover some things at the end that we typically will
cover here on the show. But I want to go
into your concept, uh preed and a little bit about
First of all, you guys were in the fine dining business,
or at least in the casual dining business. What got
(02:08):
into you to think that I'm going to go and
launch a fast casual We're going to go this direction?
Speaker 5 (02:13):
Yeah, so the idea started.
Speaker 6 (02:14):
I mean, as you guys really know, the numbers are
are cleaner in fast casual right from fine dining. Your
overhead is so high, so yeah, from so our fine
dining restaurant is about thirty minutes outside the city of Houston, right,
So we wanted to make our way into the very
popular high football areas of the city. So I thought
we might not start with something a little smaller, you know,
(02:35):
picking up our fine dining restaurants slapping in Houston would
have one costs a whole lot, and then two would
have been very difficult to kick off. So we started
two brand new concepts, one of them being Bull that
you're showing on the screen right now, and the second
one being Puck Puck Po.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
So the idea behind them was to take kind.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Of Houston's favorite fast food joints and reinvent them in
a fine dining way, bringing our find Eye chefs into
the scene and and putting it in a setting that is.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
More casual and on the more budget friendly side.
Speaker 6 (03:06):
The ingredients are just as good, the quality of the
food and and and the recipes are just as high end,
just in a in a more casual setting.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
That's the idea.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
So we took basically your your Chick fil a raising Knes,
turned it into Pocuapo, which is our Indian inspired fried
chicken and then You're Chipotle and Cava and turned it
into Bowl, which is our Indian kind of globally influenced
kind of salad.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
In my rice bowl concept awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I have to show the audience where this is coming
from because this, to me is pretty amazing. When you
look at a location that looks like that, you know
anythink anything, Wait a minute, let's spin out a fast
casual out of this. And because first of all, your
dining rooms in your in your casual and fine dining
(03:52):
absolutely fantastic. And the fact that you've gone in with
a high end chef wine somems obviously there and trying
to translate that down into approachable food. First of all,
I commend you on that, because that's something that needs
to be done in the space. Right, Well, what are
the big challenges for you when you first got started?
Speaker 6 (04:10):
So I think the biggest challenge was one coming into
almost necessarily a different city, right, So we built quite
a name within the Houston press on our fine dining stuff,
right because it's not too far.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
We're still considered one of Houston's.
Speaker 6 (04:24):
Best restaurants with them Rena and our fine dining, fine
dining setting. But coming into Houston, I think marketing people
towards hey, like these guys are known for fine dining,
what are they doing selling fried chicken and salads?
Speaker 5 (04:36):
Right? So people were a little skeptical.
Speaker 6 (04:38):
So I think on the marketing side kind of convincing
people to hey, like try it out, right.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
You know our food is good. You know it's going
to be good. It's just a little different.
Speaker 6 (04:45):
It'll be scared, right, So I think that was the
biggest challenge starting out.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
But you know, it's just like any other business. You know,
you're running your sales. You can't rely purely on your name, right,
You still have to go and get the business at
the end of the day. It's a business.
Speaker 6 (04:59):
You don't you can't have the ego saying oh, I'm
the hottest stuff in town right now because I have
a fine dining restaurant.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
No, it's not the same, right.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Sure, So how were you You said the food is
just the quality is just as good.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So how are you able to get the price point down?
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Because I'm assuming if you're in a fast casual setting,
the prices are much lower than in your fine dining right.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
Also a challenge starting out, right because you're competing with
other fast food joints.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
So having for chicken from chick Fla is going to
be much cheaper.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
So you know, sourcing our stuff from from places that
give us a higher quality, right, So our menu is
entirely helal and We brack quite a bit about our
meats being antibiotic free, hormone free, and on the fried
chicken side, gluten free as well, which is an excelling
point for Celiacs and other people who are trying to
be a little more health conscious. So sourcing those meats
(05:49):
from those places it's not too difficult.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
It's not hard at all.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
It's just hard to convince people that it's true, right,
that you're actually you're.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
Not lying to them at all. So that's the hard part.
Speaker 6 (06:00):
People are skeptical about Hey, like, yeah, you can get
great food, great ingredients. On the on the cheaper side,
are we maybe two dollars more expensive than your Chipotle
a er you're raising canes? Yeah, but you're paying for quality.
You know it's not for everyone.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
But are you finding that customers are okay with once
they get in there and tasted, they're okay with a
couple extra dollars.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
That's the biggest thing is getting the person in there
to try it and oh, this is this is so
worth that I can tell it's higher quality, right, You're
you're somebody's not going to hurt after eating it as
you would in other progressions.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
What is it so what was the challenge of trying
to connect the dots for the customers, because I think
share is right is a lot of times in fast
casual there's two kinds of customers. There's the value oriented
customer who kind of goes into what I call the
lower level of fast casual all most qs are, but
price point wise, and then there is the experience seeking
(06:58):
that's willing to pay just a little bit more for
something a unique experience, whether it's through food or something
in the in the tune of how you guys look, right,
would you guys kind of have that you know, you've
got a different definitely a different look.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
I was just showing this on screen. What was it
for you guys?
Speaker 6 (07:14):
I would say, we're more on that end where we
are experience based, right, So we're we put the location
of our of our first for this brand bowl and
pop up coo in an area that's very dense with
a demographic from the twenties thirties, So you're getting students,
a big student population than your young corporates as well.
So people are looking for a bunch of friendly meal.
(07:34):
Do they have a like two more dollars to spread? Yes,
they do, so I think location was everything. And then
like I said before, offering offering the discounts just like
any other business, right, getting people through the door to
try it first was kind of the biggest thing, right, like, oh,
we're both graduates of My brother and I are graduates
of the of the university that's right nearby. I think
(07:55):
a lot too, having our connections with the deans the
School of Hospitality over there and getting those students and
getting in the programs. One thing that the university, if
you ston does is the wolf The wolf Fest, which
is the School of Entrepreneurship, kind of has their students
run a theoretical version of a business and pop up
hoe and bowl will be one of them in the
(08:16):
next wolf Fest, So we'll have cool a bunch of
students kind of running a mock version of this.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
We're going to provide them food.
Speaker 6 (08:22):
And everything like that, and basically it's going to be
a miniature Puckbuck.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Though. But on the campus of university, if you said
run by, you do.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
You guys do that just to kind of give back
or do you find that like that really gets the
food out in front of the new customers that you need.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
It's a little bit of both the best of both worlds.
Speaker 6 (08:38):
Right, it's giving back to our university that we attended,
back to the school that taught us everything we know,
and then also kind of getting it's a marketing stent
at the end of the day as well, right, which
is just as important. So I think getting in front
of those students, those kids live in the area is
also very very important.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, well, I think the key here when you look
at elevating fast casual food, you know, kind of looking
at pop punk poh. One. Of course, this is a
new culinary element as well. You've kind of blended of
fusion here. Explain how your chef was able to take
that from a fine dining concept, because that's where I
(09:15):
have seen chefs, and I would say, I don't have
data on this. I was talking about this earlier. I
don't have data on this. But the ones I know
of the chefs that have transitioned into fast casual and
try to run both, it's about fifty to fifty that
make it. We had one here Buns and Buns down
here in Miami. I'm telling you, I think this was
(09:36):
one of the best menus I've ever seen in fast casual.
One year in business gone, you know, for whatever reason
they couldn't manage it.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, and your.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Chef and your chef is from Chopped too, so that
we want to hear about, like how that came to fruition,
Give us the rundown, give us a scoop.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
So I'll tell you how the idea of the fast
actual started originally originally, so it first started with Puck
Puck Poe, given that we served a mean, mean classy
brunch at Emrina at our fine dining restaurant, and one
of the items that was most popular was a fried
chicken sandwich. So that's how the the conceptualization kind of started,
(10:13):
was why don't we open a restaurant to just sell
this fried chicken sandwich if it is that popular over here.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
So that's how it started.
Speaker 6 (10:19):
And then we kind of gravitated into all right, if
we're selling pri chicken star, that's a little on the
on the healthier side as well.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
And that's where bowl came from. Right, So your rice
bowls and your salads and all of that.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
So they're actually connected to each other on Houston, so
they're right next door to each other.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
So the idea was, all right, you want to have.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
A little bit of a of a fried experience. You
have one there, you want to be on the healthier side.
It's right next to it, right.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
But yeah, our our chef being a chop champion winner
definitely helped kind of projectile us into that little that
little light to fame in the in the restaurant seat
in Houston. But there is so much compon petition, there's
so many high rollers in Houston, and it's it's it's
that's not the end of the road for us, right
where we're still constantly planning with chef to create new concepts,
(11:09):
kind of create kind of put him on a higher
pedestal and what he is now, right, So that's not
his first TV.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
We've talked to other restaurants where they get a big
jump from having a you know, a famous chef or
an influencer, and then it's like what do we do now,
Like how do we keep it going after getting that
first little fame?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
So have you guys, have you figured that out?
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Yeah? So that's that's very very true.
Speaker 6 (11:35):
And like I said before, it's you can't just kind
of rely on the fame or you can't have an
ego in this business. As you guys know, right, it
is a business, so you have to chase chase the
sales down constantly, right, So we and and usually to
me doing it from the beginning alongside with the help
of my team, Chef Jesse and everybody is kind of
chasing down the influencers. Because he's in such a big city.
(11:56):
Everyone's on their phone constantly, right, So having influencers and
on a constant basis is. Having the social media presence
has kind of been a big, big focus for us lately. Okay,
you guys see Pucketpoe and bowls Instagram. But the team
I have hired now is top, top notch, So having
that presence, having the ad job, doing going through ads, putting,
(12:16):
putting money into ads is kind of the biggest thing
for us now because you know, like I said, the
next show, the next Food Network show or anything like that,
it might I take a second for it to come.
We're definitely planning on something big which I can't I
can't quite speak on yet.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
I'll leave that up to Chef Jesse to announce on
his own.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
But all right, well we'll be another breaking news story.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
We're breaking the news all day long over here.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
Lot a lot in the works right now, we've been
very very busy, and Chef Jesse's is a culinary genius
but also a business minded chef, which is very important, right,
so he knows how important it is. Not it's just
a it's not just about cooking good food. That's kind
of sa right, running the kitchen properly. And now he's
he's got four different kitchens running at the same time, right,
(13:00):
So it's it's only going to get more challenging. So
being efficient in that end is also there.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
So what is the strategy?
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Is it to build individual kind of this cottage group
of fast casual concepts with one or two units per brand,
or are you looking to try to use it as
almost like a lab and spin out units so that
at some point you could franchise or sell them.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
What's what's kind of the big vision?
Speaker 5 (13:25):
I mean that's kind of a very very long road picture, right.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
We've we've started with one, so it's it's kind of
hard to predict what's going to happen down the road.
But the idea is, you know, fast casual is much
more scalable than fine dining, so multiple of the concept
is kind of the the idea now right, because all
of our concepts are unique on their own, which is
very challenging, right, the branding that goes into the little
(13:49):
details of starting a new concept from the from the
start brashes. It takes time, it takes money, and it's
very it takes up a lot of your effort, right,
so I think and being able to copy and paste
a concept in multiple parts of the city and around
the country is kind of the idea. So going into
popup pH and Bowl, we built this kind of this kitchen,
(14:11):
this facility in a way where it can provide for
the next few locations we have, right, So we're kind
of planning ahead of time, so we do plan on
putting multiple within the Houston area for and expanding hopefully
God will throughout the country. But we have quite an
extensive kitchen in the back which which serves our catering
needs everything, even our catering needs in Houston that the
(14:33):
Woodland's restaurant, right, we serve those catering needs in here too.
So it's quite a big facility we have there. And
the idea is to down the road kind of centralize,
making all of our products in one facility.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Okay, all right, so you know.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
Freshness is the name of the game, our quality of
our ingredients, so we don't want to sacrifice some of that.
But being able to make everything in one location and
kind of spread it throughout Houston is kind of the idea.
So it'll save you lot on your food costs as
well as for sure overall, I wouldn't have to build
a second whole kitchen, right because you know, that's kind
of the most part of building a restaurant. It's not
(15:09):
the glitz and glamor in the front, it's it's all
the dirty work in the back that costs you the
most money. So having all these state of the r
friars and all the equipment we have in this one
living we'll kind of make it easier for us to
branch it out to everywhere else and make it a
little cheaper for puckooa bowl number two.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Well, I think you know, you hit on some very
interesting points that a lot of restaurants have built titan
brands around commissary centers when they are trying to expand,
you know, building a central kitchen going after you know,
consistency within the brand, which is always a thing for
fast casual to stay good. Uh and especially in a
(15:46):
town like Houston where when you're growing within the town,
you know as well as I man, word gets around
quickly if you're good or if you're bad. Right, so
you got to stay on it for sure. What was
uh you know when I when I looked at the
brand itself, first of all, give us a rundown of
all the brands that are and we've got Pock Pok
Po obviously bowl, which we're talking about today. So what
(16:09):
else is in your group?
Speaker 5 (16:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (16:10):
So we started the group with the Marina, which is
our find awning restaurant.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
Up north.
Speaker 6 (16:15):
We've we've have Johnny's Italian steakhous as well, which is
a franchise. It's not our original concept, but one of
our first learning restaurants that we have, So I put
that under the belt as well because we made it.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
We made it quite a scene out here, said.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
It was a franchise, So do you have more than
one location of those or are you working on.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
That in the northeast.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
But we brought it into one of our hotels we
have down here, only one in Texas. Concept isn't originally ours,
but we kind of elevated it to the next level.
So I kind of I kind of like to give
us the credit for what do you.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
What do you think about franchising versus running it your
own brand?
Speaker 5 (16:51):
So we're I mean, we're still running it. It's just
you're kind of being told what to do.
Speaker 6 (16:55):
Yeah, right at the end of the day and there
and the reason we chose that brands as being the
one we want to put in there is one. It's
it's a hotel requirement based on the hotel brand. IHG
kind of picks which which restaurants they.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Allow you to put in there.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
But at the end of the day, we pick that
one because a little more on the lenient side as
to what you can do. So you have to follow
their protocol when it comes to design the place kind
of how your menu looks a few the items, but
the end of the day, you can play around with
it a little bit. And we have this team of
brilliant chefs that we're able to train and kind of
make that a training facility and hub for our chefs
(17:30):
in there to try to put them into the next
kind of gravitate them into the next level.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Right.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
So, and Marina and Johnny's Italian Steakhouts being kind of
the hub where our chefs will come because we bring
a majority of our chefs from overseas, kind of train
the different techniques. So that's why I feel like we're
so special, right, because if you want something on a
different aspect, you want something with the kind of an
Italian influence, a concept with French techniques or something like that,
we have a guy for it, already.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Got a guy, world, do.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
We have a guy?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Right?
Speaker 6 (18:00):
So I think that's what makes us so special, right,
So we'll kind of bring them into one concept to
kind of get used to it, get used to the team,
get used to being in a different country, kind of
see how they roll from there, and then that's how
we kind of distribute it.
Speaker 5 (18:11):
Now.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
Unfortunately, we have multiple restaurants where we can put them,
so we have quite an extensive group of about twenty
to thirty thirty guys who kind of are able to
bounce around each each concept.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
Right.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Do you think having those different kinds of specialists in
different cuisines as leading to some fusion? Are you combining
menu items and testing things out like that?
Speaker 6 (18:34):
So that's that's kind of brings me to my next
point is our newer concepts coming up. We'll obviously pop
up poll and Bull are a fusion experience. I would say,
Marina is It's the hardest question I get asked is
what kind of food do you serve at every How
to describe it? Because it's is it Indian food?
Speaker 5 (18:52):
No? Is it American food? Not really closer? So what
is it? What kind of fusion is it?
Speaker 6 (18:57):
It's a little bit of everything, right, because we have
if you take a look at our menu, we have
we're considered a steakhouse by some people as well, and
Indian steakhouts just kind of unheard of, right, But this
way I could describe as it's American cuisine with an
Indian influence, right, and then Popua Phone and Bull being
kind of the same thing. And then we are I
(19:19):
guess this is kind of my first announcement, which is
exciting to the public. We're opening kitchen Rumors in the
Heights area by the end of this month. Hopefully we're
kind of running it last minute, but it'll be kind
of in the heart of the city. And the idea
behind the menu is also kind of the same thing, right.
And I was talking to someone about this yesterday because
(19:39):
asked me the exact question. Right outside us I was
helping the construction work is what kind of food is it?
At the stand there and poster for a little bit,
I was like, uh really.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
But just try it.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
So what kind of service model does the kitchen Rumors have?
Is that a fast casual or a sit down.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Or Rumors as a full service restaurant.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
So we're trying to hit every kind of aspect of
hospitality on the Russian side we can, right, So we
have Arina being our fine dining restaurant, pop up poll
and Ball being our fast casual right counter service restaurants,
and then this one's kind of in the middle, so
we're going to be doing it's a full service, sit
down restaurant. However it is in a in a casual,
(20:18):
a more casual environment. Your price point is going to
be lower than a Marina, and Marina You're you're looking
at it at about one hundred ahead at Arina and
you're given that experience. It is a full service, white
tablecloth experience. And Kitchen Rumors is again just how to
describe with bowl, bringing that whole experience, bringing those ingredients,
bringing that quality into a slightly more casual setting, not
(20:41):
saying it's it's it's lower equality by any means. It's
just we're able to sell it at at a cheaper
price point given that, you know location kind of how
we run the show. We don't have two server assistants
every single table, three buds and all of that, right,
we're able to run it a little leaner over there.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
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Speaker 2 (22:25):
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Speaker 1 (22:29):
Just go over to Gusto dot com use our link
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Speaker 2 (22:33):
To get started. See you there, man, this is beautiful work.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
It's boozy.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah it is, boy, it's boogie.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
You got to it looks like you have a cocktail
program in there as well.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
Is it pretty extensive, Yeah, so it's it's been on well.
Like I said, we're hitting three years in by next
week the seventeenth to be opened. So we've we've changed
directions and so many times at a marina. It's been
and it's been fortunate that it's been able to stay
there given how much we've changed, and it's been a
learning experience. So going forward, now we've we've been able
to build a team in the last three years that's
(23:10):
kind of the a team. And I mean, obviously I'm biased,
but I think all of Houston, right we have the
best mixer nice Now we have some of the best
Somalia's on that team, which we're going to be bringing
into this more casual environment at kitchen.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I was gonna ask you, that's what that's where I
was heading. Are you planning to transition any of that
into fast casual?
Speaker 5 (23:28):
Yeah, so so fast casual.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
I don't know how you're going to bring a Somali
into fast casual, but you know, definitely with the chefs
and and the uh and the ingredients.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
Where we source our things, for sure.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
But within kitchen rumors, our cocktail program, our wine program
is going to be on the swimmer side, but just
as high quality.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Will you or do you have alcohol alcohol in the
fast casual yet?
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Beer and wine?
Speaker 1 (23:50):
That's okay, Well, I'll give you I'll give you an
idea because This is something that a chef I know
tried to do here in Miami, and it was too
early for what they were attempting to do. They had
a psalm that was world renowned. She was just absolutely amazing.
So what they did was they recorded her presenting these
(24:11):
wines and they put it on a big touch screen
TV in their restaurant, so you could go select the
Pino Noir or them R Low or whatever, and when
you tap it, she would come on screen and give
you the explanation of the wine. And I'm thinking, wait
a minute, Ai, you know some sort of interaction you
could have. Maybe that's the way to get your som
(24:33):
into your you know, more fast casual concept.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Think about it.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
She failed at it, but you know, hey, everybody learns
from the early days.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
So Okay, so we've seen the transition. You guys are
moving in the right direction here in terms of best
casual find dining. You're kind of going with a lot
of models here. Which one do you feel has the
leg to truly scale and are you planning to do that?
Speaker 6 (25:04):
I think it's fast casual, Like I said, it's easiest
to replicate and scalability is there.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
We have.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
We're still working out of a building a program, building
the structure to where it is copy and paste, where
where mister Baron could go in, open a book and
be like, all right, I can make this chicken, right, Yeah,
have all the ingredients right in front of me. I
have all the instructions everything, So all the steps of service,
every single little thing. If you can build a bible
that has everything in it that anyone can walk in
(25:34):
and learn, like.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
A franchise operations manual for sure.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
So what's the idea behind instead of just going with one?
Like you said, the fast casual has the leg so
just concentrating on that one. Why do you think it's
important to have that fine dining and the casual and
the fast casual all three.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
It's all about building your name.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
I think kind of being versatile having the fine dining,
it puts you on that pedestal being like, how these
guys know what they're doing, right? So, I mean at
the end of the day, I think that's that's more
of a passion project, right because you know we're culinary.
We're very passionate about the culinary arts. We have a
team of chefs that this is their livelihood right. Their
(26:16):
bread and butter is getting that Michelin Star down the
road right. Yes, their dream for every single one of them,
and then and that's what I promise them that I'd.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
Help them get it right.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
So, so helping them out and it's does it costs
a lot at the end of it kind of puts
our brand on that pedestals as we're the top dogs
because Imrino was ranked Restaurant the Year in twenty twenty
two our first year opening I Eater magazine, where we've
been on Houston Chronicles top twenty five restaurants for the
last three years now two years.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
I think that it rank goes the first year.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Is it in the Woodlands as well?
Speaker 6 (26:49):
Yeah, yeah, so I'm talking about so it's in the Woodlands.
We're still considered part of Houston. When it came to
Michelin Guide coming to Texas, the rumor was they never
went out.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Of the metro.
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Yeah, so we are right on the cusp of where
it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Well, I think you know, there is there is history
here from brands that have done that. If you look
at Danny Meyer, what he did with his whole hospitality
group and was able to transition out Shakeshack. Then you
go over to Chicago and look at Rich Melman with
let us entertain you. I mean, they were a concept
that we're all fine dining, and then they started spinning
(27:27):
out all sorts of fast catual brand. I mean that's
where Jeff Alexander came from, you know, which is obviously wobow.
So it's interesting that that is the route you take
because we have not seen many of those kinds of successes.
So maybe you guys will be the next Rich Melman
and Danny Meyer.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Coming in.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Well, you got the right you got the right start,
that's for sure. I think the quality is there, You've
got the chef orientation, the branding seems to be on point.
When you look at the challenges, what do you feel
like this is the thing we have to overcome to
make it to the next level.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
I think it comes down to your nitty gritty numbers
in fast casual, and the branding is one of them, right,
Because when it comes to fast casual, every little detail
goes into your pricing.
Speaker 5 (28:17):
Right, how much of the box costs that you put
it in? Right? How is that plastic fork that I
just gave away costs? Right?
Speaker 6 (28:23):
So knowing all your numbers and being on top of it,
which is probably the biggest challenge is getting your pricing
right and being able to source it from somewhere that
is able to keep your pricing low. Right. So where
we bring all our boxes in are the person who
designed it, right. We have a team of quite extensive
team people overseas that kind of take care of everything
when it comes to that, right, So we're still able
(28:44):
to bring the highest quality stuff in just at a
cheaper price. So I think that's kind of the biggest
challenge going forward because now if we do plan on
doing multiple of these, that requires crates and crates and
containers on containers coming from overseas, which you know, my
first mean from Pock Put, Poe and Bowl. I remember
I took me the entire team of chefs at that time,
So it was about ten of us up till probably
(29:07):
four in the morning, with you bringing it in from
the port ourselves, right, just a little bit of money.
It was a forty two thousand pound palette of just
paper goods.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
A boxing.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Oh my god, every.
Speaker 6 (29:19):
Little thing that goes into each order. Yeah, we got
custom made, right. So I think that's what makes us
kind of kind of special as well.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah do you think?
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Okay, so you're you're talking about the details, getting down
into the grain in a side of the unit economics,
what is the size of a restaurant or bowl and
for pock pok poe in terms of what do you
need for square footage to be able to operate.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
I want to go much smaller than what we have
right now.
Speaker 6 (29:43):
Like I said, our kitchen is very big over here,
given that we're planning at that centralized facility for everything
for catering and then onto the next puck up poll bowls.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
I think the wingstop model of what I.
Speaker 6 (29:57):
Think they just call it a wingstop Express, but I
think that's the future, right because we've converted a pop
up poe into kind of a self serve kiosk environment, right,
but a little different given that is sure you need
someone to serve you it, but the idea of the
model where someone can come in because people don't like
being as verbal nowadays, right, that's why door dash and
(30:17):
gub eats are doing so well. Nobody wants to even
leave their house to interact with people, right, So being
able to walk in, touch on a screen, a few
buttons and if you have it set up correctly, right,
and that within ten minutes without talking to anyone.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
That's kind of the future, right.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
So I think any space that just you can put
a counter in and maybe a few friars, so less
than a thousand square feet.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
So really going really going tuned into that convenient side
of things, but elevating the quality that's coming out. I
think this is well, it's interesting that you say that,
because this is something that I'm noticing more and more
in the space. Sarah, what about you? Are you catching
this idea of everybody trying to get faster and more convenient?
Speaker 4 (30:57):
Yeh, think faster and smaller, less dining rooms. Technology, the Kiosks.
I mean, you know, my our parent company has a
magazine called Kioskmarketplace dot com that we have been covering
this forever and we kept thinking, you know, five years
ago is kind of dying, but it's exploded again and
so it's Kiosks everything, and we're ordering on the phone.
(31:18):
If the Kiosks, you know, if people don't want to
make that investment. Obviously a lot of these restaurants are
trying to go into airports and concert venues and you
know where that technology makes a lot of sense, So
I think that's you're definitely on the right track.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, heyret listen, this is first of all, congrats on everything.
You guys are doing amazing concepts for you guys that
are watching or maybe listening in on the podcast right now.
Check it out all and pok pok po there in
Houston next time. I'm in Woodland Hills. A friend of
mine has a place out on Comra Lake, So Lake Conra,
(31:52):
I guess it is, so it's not very far from you,
so I definitely got to swing by for sure.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
I would love to have you guys, and I'd love
for you guys to experience pop phone.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Pred It's been great having you on. Thanks for coming
in today. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (32:05):
Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it, you bet.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
All right, So we'll get into the last part here,
and I think one of the things. First of all,
I'm so glad we finally had a fine dining concept on.
I think that's the first one that we've had on
the show. Yeah, that was spinning out into fast Casual
because this is something that we've seen a lot of
in the history of fast casual some of the best
brands ever have come out of fine dining concepts Jake Shack.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
And a lot more.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
So I think we're going to see so much in
the way of opportunity around this. Sharah, what is going
on at Fastcasual dot com.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
We are busy, busy. We wrote reported today about Starbucks.
They're testing their AI tool for the baristas so they
can just basically immediately ask, you know, what's the ingredient
and you know this tea or whatever.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
They're doing that in and thirty thirty different restaurants, and
I assume that they will be rolling that out, so
it sounds like a no brainer.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
So that's kind.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Of seeing some of the robotic I was in Austin
this last week and I saw some of the robotic
baristas in the airport and I tried.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
It and it did you like it?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
And the coffee was good? So I was like, okay, yeah,
I'm okay.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
I mean, I think Starbucks is the best of both
worlds doing it this way because they're still using humans
and they still love that hospitality and like the you know,
the cool vibe of being in Starbucks, but it just
makes it faster and easier for them.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
So well, it looks like it's going to be a success.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Well, tech is obviously moving so quickly, and I'm hearing
so much of this whole robotic phase that's coming in.
I hope that you guys report more on that because
I'm intrigued as to whether or not that's going to
be a real thing in the you know, in the
future for fast casual and where it's going from there.
I know you guys also had a huge marketing thing.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Yeah, we had a restaurant market We had a restaurant
marketing workshop last week in Indianapolis.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
It was awesome.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
It was a smaller organic The takeaways were basically that
you have to be hands on with your with your marketing, and.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Yeah, you can't put on an autopilot and I have
done that.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Yeah yeah, I mean a lot of people have, you know,
and you've got to control that basically responding to every customer,
whether it's negative or positive, especially if it's negative, because
you can turn those negatives into your top customers.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
So that was great.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
We had a great session on social media where we
gave lots of tips, so that that was really cool.
And you can read about there's a takeaway on the
website on Fast Casual the thirteen social media tips that
that we kind of taught. So people if they missed it,
they can they can check out those actual like thirteen
tips that you can go do tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
So it's not I mean you have to invest in.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
It's just little things that that make the difference.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
I got them right here, go local Facebook and brand
with Instagram.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
So I like the go local idea. This is something
I think it's coming back.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Is Yeah. I think a lot of a lot of
marketers were talking about, you know, do you give your franchisees,
your local franchises the power to do their own social
media and some of them were Some of them said yes,
but you have to set up guidelines obviously, and some
of them said, you know, you can go local Facebook,
but maybe keep it corporate on the Instagram. So it
(35:33):
was just interesting to see what people were thinking.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
I'm looking at some of these last items. This is interesting.
Embrace smart gifting.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
So oh yeah, so they were Yeah, they were talking
about like you don't always have to give away free stuff,
you know, yeah, you can give away be the first
to try this food or you know, something like that.
Other than just giving cubons. Yeah, a lot of the
brands were thinking like giving up too much stuff under
reminds the.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Value exactly well, and it's often the it's like the
go to for a bad experience. Somebody just automatically says, oh, well,
let me do this for you, you know, and give
you free food mainly instead of really trying to address
it with more of a memorable, you know, effort. So
I agree with that. I think that's a good one.
And then don't count out email. It's it's email still works.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Email still works, and especially if you've got the if
you're trying to grow your loyalty platform program, they you know,
are doing hand in hand at really sending those messages
through the email to get them to sign up for
your loyalty platform.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Seems to still be working.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Yeah, listen, if you guys are not over on the
email list or fastcasual dot com, you should be. All
you have to do is just visit fastcasual dot com
right there. You guys can get in there and get
your inbox full of the great stuff coming out of
Fastcasual dot Com. All right, guys, we're gonna wrap this
one up, but we've got a big lineup this summer,
(36:59):
come from a variety of brands, a lot of interesting
topics around all sectors in Fast Casual. You do not
want to miss it. So if you're not subscribed to
the show right now, just take a minute subscribe to
the show. If you're here on YouTube, click subscribe right below,
and if you're over on the podcast side of things
and you're listening, you can also just subscribe to the
(37:19):
show over there and leave us a note let us
know if you like it's what do you think we
should be doing on the show. And if we haven't
got a guest on here that you want, then us
a note which is just producer at Saver dot fm.
And of course you can always reach out to share.
What's your email Shara.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Share a C at networldmediagroup dot com, so c H
E R R y h C at networldmediagroup dot com.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
If you guys have a breaking story or you have
something really cool to announce, this is the lady.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Yes, tell me, we will break it for you and
then we'll break here on the podcast again.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
All right, guys, we'll catch you next time right here.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
As Casual nations,
Welcome back to another episode of Fast Casual Nation, of course,
the podcast that started it all. Today we are flying
solo Share cancler is going to be joining me? Oh
wait a minute, I like Share. She's coming in right now.
Let me just drop her into the show.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Bam, All right.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yes, you're coming.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
All right.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
I don't know what the heck's going on, but we're
going to just go play and be with the phone.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Sometimes that's the way you got to do it is
you have to improvise. Speaking of improvisation, we have a
guest today that has done just that, and we're talking
about from fine dining to fast casual. This, of course,
is a concept out of Houston, Texas called Bowl, and
it's kind of interesting. When I first discovered it, I
was amazed first of all that this came in from
(00:46):
a fine dining concept group and what they were able
to do. So we asked Paulsing, our pre Paulsing, to
join us today. My name is Paul Baron. As the
(01:15):
early pioneer in fast casual, I've seen the industry evolve
from just a few operators to the most sought after
segment by consumers around the world. Now we're planning to
shape its future. Tap into decades of my expertise identifying
the emerging brands and tech winners in the space saber capital.
(01:37):
We'll be fueling the next generation of fast casual innovation.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
How are you breet awesome?
Speaker 5 (01:44):
I doing great, Thank you for having me excellent.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So we'll get into it directly with you. Sometimes Chare
and I will go back and forth share. We might
cover some things at the end that we typically will
cover here on the show. But I want to go
into your concept, uh preed and a little bit about
First of all, you guys were in the fine dining business,
or at least in the casual dining business. What got
(02:08):
into you to think that I'm going to go and
launch a fast casual We're going to go this direction?
Speaker 5 (02:13):
Yeah, so the idea started.
Speaker 6 (02:14):
I mean, as you guys really know, the numbers are
are cleaner in fast casual right from fine dining. Your
overhead is so high, so yeah, from so our fine
dining restaurant is about thirty minutes outside the city of Houston, right,
So we wanted to make our way into the very
popular high football areas of the city. So I thought
we might not start with something a little smaller, you know,
(02:35):
picking up our fine dining restaurants slapping in Houston would
have one costs a whole lot, and then two would
have been very difficult to kick off. So we started
two brand new concepts, one of them being Bull that
you're showing on the screen right now, and the second
one being Puck Puck Po.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
So the idea behind them was to take kind.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Of Houston's favorite fast food joints and reinvent them in
a fine dining way, bringing our find Eye chefs into
the scene and and putting it in a setting that is.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
More casual and on the more budget friendly side.
Speaker 6 (03:06):
The ingredients are just as good, the quality of the
food and and and the recipes are just as high end,
just in a in a more casual setting.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
That's the idea.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
So we took basically your your Chick fil a raising Knes,
turned it into Pocuapo, which is our Indian inspired fried
chicken and then You're Chipotle and Cava and turned it
into Bowl, which is our Indian kind of globally influenced
kind of salad.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
In my rice bowl concept awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I have to show the audience where this is coming
from because this, to me is pretty amazing. When you
look at a location that looks like that, you know
anythink anything, Wait a minute, let's spin out a fast
casual out of this. And because first of all, your
dining rooms in your in your casual and fine dining
(03:52):
absolutely fantastic. And the fact that you've gone in with
a high end chef wine somems obviously there and trying
to translate that down into approachable food. First of all,
I commend you on that, because that's something that needs
to be done in the space. Right, Well, what are
the big challenges for you when you first got started?
Speaker 6 (04:10):
So I think the biggest challenge was one coming into
almost necessarily a different city, right, So we built quite
a name within the Houston press on our fine dining stuff,
right because it's not too far.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
We're still considered one of Houston's.
Speaker 6 (04:24):
Best restaurants with them Rena and our fine dining, fine
dining setting. But coming into Houston, I think marketing people
towards hey, like these guys are known for fine dining,
what are they doing selling fried chicken and salads?
Speaker 5 (04:36):
Right? So people were a little skeptical.
Speaker 6 (04:38):
So I think on the marketing side kind of convincing
people to hey, like try it out, right.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
You know our food is good. You know it's going
to be good. It's just a little different.
Speaker 6 (04:45):
It'll be scared, right, So I think that was the
biggest challenge starting out.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
But you know, it's just like any other business. You know,
you're running your sales. You can't rely purely on your name, right,
You still have to go and get the business at
the end of the day. It's a business.
Speaker 6 (04:59):
You don't you can't have the ego saying oh, I'm
the hottest stuff in town right now because I have
a fine dining restaurant.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
No, it's not the same, right.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Sure, So how were you You said the food is
just the quality is just as good.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So how are you able to get the price point down?
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Because I'm assuming if you're in a fast casual setting,
the prices are much lower than in your fine dining right.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
Also a challenge starting out, right because you're competing with
other fast food joints.
Speaker 5 (05:23):
So having for chicken from chick Fla is going to
be much cheaper.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
So you know, sourcing our stuff from from places that
give us a higher quality, right, So our menu is
entirely helal and We brack quite a bit about our
meats being antibiotic free, hormone free, and on the fried
chicken side, gluten free as well, which is an excelling
point for Celiacs and other people who are trying to
be a little more health conscious. So sourcing those meats
(05:49):
from those places it's not too difficult.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
It's not hard at all.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
It's just hard to convince people that it's true, right,
that you're actually you're.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
Not lying to them at all. So that's the hard part.
Speaker 6 (06:00):
People are skeptical about Hey, like, yeah, you can get
great food, great ingredients. On the on the cheaper side,
are we maybe two dollars more expensive than your Chipotle
a er you're raising canes? Yeah, but you're paying for quality.
You know it's not for everyone.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
But are you finding that customers are okay with once
they get in there and tasted, they're okay with a
couple extra dollars.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
That's the biggest thing is getting the person in there
to try it and oh, this is this is so
worth that I can tell it's higher quality, right, You're
you're somebody's not going to hurt after eating it as
you would in other progressions.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
What is it so what was the challenge of trying
to connect the dots for the customers, because I think
share is right is a lot of times in fast
casual there's two kinds of customers. There's the value oriented
customer who kind of goes into what I call the
lower level of fast casual all most qs are, but
price point wise, and then there is the experience seeking
(06:58):
that's willing to pay just a little bit more for
something a unique experience, whether it's through food or something
in the in the tune of how you guys look, right,
would you guys kind of have that you know, you've
got a different definitely a different look.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
I was just showing this on screen. What was it
for you guys?
Speaker 6 (07:14):
I would say, we're more on that end where we
are experience based, right, So we're we put the location
of our of our first for this brand bowl and
pop up coo in an area that's very dense with
a demographic from the twenties thirties, So you're getting students,
a big student population than your young corporates as well.
So people are looking for a bunch of friendly meal.
(07:34):
Do they have a like two more dollars to spread? Yes,
they do, so I think location was everything. And then
like I said before, offering offering the discounts just like
any other business, right, getting people through the door to
try it first was kind of the biggest thing, right, like, oh,
we're both graduates of My brother and I are graduates
of the of the university that's right nearby. I think
(07:55):
a lot too, having our connections with the deans the
School of Hospitality over there and getting those students and
getting in the programs. One thing that the university, if
you ston does is the wolf The wolf Fest, which
is the School of Entrepreneurship, kind of has their students
run a theoretical version of a business and pop up
hoe and bowl will be one of them in the
(08:16):
next wolf Fest, So we'll have cool a bunch of
students kind of running a mock version of this.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
We're going to provide them food.
Speaker 6 (08:22):
And everything like that, and basically it's going to be
a miniature Puckbuck.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Though. But on the campus of university, if you said
run by, you do.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
You guys do that just to kind of give back
or do you find that like that really gets the
food out in front of the new customers that you need.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
It's a little bit of both the best of both worlds.
Speaker 6 (08:38):
Right, it's giving back to our university that we attended,
back to the school that taught us everything we know,
and then also kind of getting it's a marketing stent
at the end of the day as well, right, which
is just as important. So I think getting in front
of those students, those kids live in the area is
also very very important.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, well, I think the key here when you look
at elevating fast casual food, you know, kind of looking
at pop punk poh. One. Of course, this is a
new culinary element as well. You've kind of blended of
fusion here. Explain how your chef was able to take
that from a fine dining concept, because that's where I
(09:15):
have seen chefs, and I would say, I don't have
data on this. I was talking about this earlier. I
don't have data on this. But the ones I know
of the chefs that have transitioned into fast casual and
try to run both, it's about fifty to fifty that
make it. We had one here Buns and Buns down
here in Miami. I'm telling you, I think this was
(09:36):
one of the best menus I've ever seen in fast casual.
One year in business gone, you know, for whatever reason
they couldn't manage it.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, and your.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Chef and your chef is from Chopped too, so that
we want to hear about, like how that came to fruition,
Give us the rundown, give us a scoop.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
So I'll tell you how the idea of the fast
actual started originally originally, so it first started with Puck
Puck Poe, given that we served a mean, mean classy
brunch at Emrina at our fine dining restaurant, and one
of the items that was most popular was a fried
chicken sandwich. So that's how the the conceptualization kind of started,
(10:13):
was why don't we open a restaurant to just sell
this fried chicken sandwich if it is that popular over here.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
So that's how it started.
Speaker 6 (10:19):
And then we kind of gravitated into all right, if
we're selling pri chicken star, that's a little on the
on the healthier side as well.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
And that's where bowl came from. Right, So your rice
bowls and your salads and all of that.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
So they're actually connected to each other on Houston, so
they're right next door to each other.
Speaker 5 (10:35):
So the idea was, all right, you want to have.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
A little bit of a of a fried experience. You
have one there, you want to be on the healthier side.
It's right next to it, right.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
But yeah, our our chef being a chop champion winner
definitely helped kind of projectile us into that little that
little light to fame in the in the restaurant seat
in Houston. But there is so much compon petition, there's
so many high rollers in Houston, and it's it's it's
that's not the end of the road for us, right
where we're still constantly planning with chef to create new concepts,
(11:09):
kind of create kind of put him on a higher
pedestal and what he is now, right, So that's not
his first TV.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
We've talked to other restaurants where they get a big
jump from having a you know, a famous chef or
an influencer, and then it's like what do we do now,
Like how do we keep it going after getting that
first little fame?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
So have you guys, have you figured that out?
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Yeah? So that's that's very very true.
Speaker 6 (11:35):
And like I said before, it's you can't just kind
of rely on the fame or you can't have an
ego in this business. As you guys know, right, it
is a business, so you have to chase chase the
sales down constantly, right, So we and and usually to
me doing it from the beginning alongside with the help
of my team, Chef Jesse and everybody is kind of
chasing down the influencers. Because he's in such a big city.
(11:56):
Everyone's on their phone constantly, right, So having influencers and
on a constant basis is. Having the social media presence
has kind of been a big, big focus for us lately. Okay,
you guys see Pucketpoe and bowls Instagram. But the team
I have hired now is top, top notch, So having
that presence, having the ad job, doing going through ads, putting,
(12:16):
putting money into ads is kind of the biggest thing
for us now because you know, like I said, the
next show, the next Food Network show or anything like that,
it might I take a second for it to come.
We're definitely planning on something big which I can't I
can't quite speak on yet.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
I'll leave that up to Chef Jesse to announce on
his own.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
But all right, well we'll be another breaking news story.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
We're breaking the news all day long over here.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
Lot a lot in the works right now, we've been
very very busy, and Chef Jesse's is a culinary genius
but also a business minded chef, which is very important, right,
so he knows how important it is. Not it's just
a it's not just about cooking good food. That's kind
of sa right, running the kitchen properly. And now he's
he's got four different kitchens running at the same time, right,
(13:00):
So it's it's only going to get more challenging. So
being efficient in that end is also there.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
So what is the strategy?
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Is it to build individual kind of this cottage group
of fast casual concepts with one or two units per brand,
or are you looking to try to use it as
almost like a lab and spin out units so that
at some point you could franchise or sell them.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
What's what's kind of the big vision?
Speaker 5 (13:25):
I mean that's kind of a very very long road picture, right.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
We've we've started with one, so it's it's kind of
hard to predict what's going to happen down the road.
But the idea is, you know, fast casual is much
more scalable than fine dining, so multiple of the concept
is kind of the the idea now right, because all
of our concepts are unique on their own, which is
very challenging, right, the branding that goes into the little
(13:49):
details of starting a new concept from the from the
start brashes. It takes time, it takes money, and it's
very it takes up a lot of your effort, right,
so I think and being able to copy and paste
a concept in multiple parts of the city and around
the country is kind of the idea. So going into
popup pH and Bowl, we built this kind of this kitchen,
(14:11):
this facility in a way where it can provide for
the next few locations we have, right, So we're kind
of planning ahead of time, so we do plan on
putting multiple within the Houston area for and expanding hopefully
God will throughout the country. But we have quite an
extensive kitchen in the back which which serves our catering
needs everything, even our catering needs in Houston that the
(14:33):
Woodland's restaurant, right, we serve those catering needs in here too.
So it's quite a big facility we have there. And
the idea is to down the road kind of centralize,
making all of our products in one facility.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
Okay, all right, so you know.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
Freshness is the name of the game, our quality of
our ingredients, so we don't want to sacrifice some of that.
But being able to make everything in one location and
kind of spread it throughout Houston is kind of the idea.
So it'll save you lot on your food costs as
well as for sure overall, I wouldn't have to build
a second whole kitchen, right because you know, that's kind
of the most part of building a restaurant. It's not
(15:09):
the glitz and glamor in the front, it's it's all
the dirty work in the back that costs you the
most money. So having all these state of the r
friars and all the equipment we have in this one
living we'll kind of make it easier for us to
branch it out to everywhere else and make it a
little cheaper for puckooa bowl number two.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Well, I think you know, you hit on some very
interesting points that a lot of restaurants have built titan
brands around commissary centers when they are trying to expand,
you know, building a central kitchen going after you know,
consistency within the brand, which is always a thing for
fast casual to stay good. Uh and especially in a
(15:46):
town like Houston where when you're growing within the town,
you know as well as I man, word gets around
quickly if you're good or if you're bad. Right, so
you got to stay on it for sure. What was
uh you know when I when I looked at the
brand itself, first of all, give us a rundown of
all the brands that are and we've got Pock Pok
Po obviously bowl, which we're talking about today. So what
(16:09):
else is in your group?
Speaker 5 (16:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (16:10):
So we started the group with the Marina, which is
our find awning restaurant.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
Up north.
Speaker 6 (16:15):
We've we've have Johnny's Italian steakhous as well, which is
a franchise. It's not our original concept, but one of
our first learning restaurants that we have, So I put
that under the belt as well because we made it.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
We made it quite a scene out here, said.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
It was a franchise, So do you have more than
one location of those or are you working on.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
That in the northeast.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
But we brought it into one of our hotels we
have down here, only one in Texas. Concept isn't originally ours,
but we kind of elevated it to the next level.
So I kind of I kind of like to give
us the credit for what do you.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
What do you think about franchising versus running it your
own brand?
Speaker 5 (16:51):
So we're I mean, we're still running it. It's just
you're kind of being told what to do.
Speaker 6 (16:55):
Yeah, right at the end of the day and there
and the reason we chose that brands as being the
one we want to put in there is one. It's
it's a hotel requirement based on the hotel brand. IHG
kind of picks which which restaurants they.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Allow you to put in there.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
But at the end of the day, we pick that
one because a little more on the lenient side as
to what you can do. So you have to follow
their protocol when it comes to design the place kind
of how your menu looks a few the items, but
the end of the day, you can play around with
it a little bit. And we have this team of
brilliant chefs that we're able to train and kind of
make that a training facility and hub for our chefs
(17:30):
in there to try to put them into the next
kind of gravitate them into the next level.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Right.
Speaker 6 (17:35):
So, and Marina and Johnny's Italian Steakhouts being kind of
the hub where our chefs will come because we bring
a majority of our chefs from overseas, kind of train
the different techniques. So that's why I feel like we're
so special, right, because if you want something on a
different aspect, you want something with the kind of an
Italian influence, a concept with French techniques or something like that,
we have a guy for it, already.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Got a guy, world, do.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
We have a guy?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Right?
Speaker 6 (18:00):
So I think that's what makes us so special, right,
So we'll kind of bring them into one concept to
kind of get used to it, get used to the team,
get used to being in a different country, kind of
see how they roll from there, and then that's how
we kind of distribute it.
Speaker 5 (18:11):
Now.
Speaker 6 (18:12):
Unfortunately, we have multiple restaurants where we can put them,
so we have quite an extensive group of about twenty
to thirty thirty guys who kind of are able to
bounce around each each concept.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
Right.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Do you think having those different kinds of specialists in
different cuisines as leading to some fusion? Are you combining
menu items and testing things out like that?
Speaker 6 (18:34):
So that's that's kind of brings me to my next
point is our newer concepts coming up. We'll obviously pop
up poll and Bull are a fusion experience. I would say,
Marina is It's the hardest question I get asked is
what kind of food do you serve at every How
to describe it? Because it's is it Indian food?
Speaker 5 (18:52):
No? Is it American food? Not really closer? So what
is it? What kind of fusion is it?
Speaker 6 (18:57):
It's a little bit of everything, right, because we have
if you take a look at our menu, we have
we're considered a steakhouse by some people as well, and
Indian steakhouts just kind of unheard of, right, But this
way I could describe as it's American cuisine with an
Indian influence, right, and then Popua Phone and Bull being
kind of the same thing. And then we are I
(19:19):
guess this is kind of my first announcement, which is
exciting to the public. We're opening kitchen Rumors in the
Heights area by the end of this month. Hopefully we're
kind of running it last minute, but it'll be kind
of in the heart of the city. And the idea
behind the menu is also kind of the same thing, right.
And I was talking to someone about this yesterday because
(19:39):
asked me the exact question. Right outside us I was
helping the construction work is what kind of food is it?
At the stand there and poster for a little bit,
I was like, uh really.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
But just try it.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
So what kind of service model does the kitchen Rumors have?
Is that a fast casual or a sit down.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Or Rumors as a full service restaurant.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
So we're trying to hit every kind of aspect of
hospitality on the Russian side we can, right, So we
have Arina being our fine dining restaurant, pop up poll
and Ball being our fast casual right counter service restaurants,
and then this one's kind of in the middle, so
we're going to be doing it's a full service, sit
down restaurant. However it is in a in a casual,
(20:18):
a more casual environment. Your price point is going to
be lower than a Marina, and Marina You're you're looking
at it at about one hundred ahead at Arina and
you're given that experience. It is a full service, white
tablecloth experience. And Kitchen Rumors is again just how to
describe with bowl, bringing that whole experience, bringing those ingredients,
bringing that quality into a slightly more casual setting, not
(20:41):
saying it's it's it's lower equality by any means. It's
just we're able to sell it at at a cheaper
price point given that, you know location kind of how
we run the show. We don't have two server assistants
every single table, three buds and all of that, right,
we're able to run it a little leaner over there.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
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Speaker 5 (22:40):
It's boozy.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah it is, boy, it's boogie.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
You got to it looks like you have a cocktail
program in there as well.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
Is it pretty extensive, Yeah, so it's it's been on well.
Like I said, we're hitting three years in by next
week the seventeenth to be opened. So we've we've changed
directions and so many times at a marina. It's been
and it's been fortunate that it's been able to stay
there given how much we've changed, and it's been a
learning experience. So going forward, now we've we've been able
to build a team in the last three years that's
(23:10):
kind of the a team. And I mean, obviously I'm biased,
but I think all of Houston, right we have the
best mixer nice Now we have some of the best
Somalia's on that team, which we're going to be bringing
into this more casual environment at kitchen.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I was gonna ask you, that's what that's where I
was heading. Are you planning to transition any of that
into fast casual?
Speaker 5 (23:28):
Yeah, so so fast casual.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
I don't know how you're going to bring a Somali
into fast casual, but you know, definitely with the chefs
and and the uh and the ingredients.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
Where we source our things, for sure.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
But within kitchen rumors, our cocktail program, our wine program
is going to be on the swimmer side, but just
as high quality.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Will you or do you have alcohol alcohol in the
fast casual yet?
Speaker 5 (23:49):
Beer and wine?
Speaker 1 (23:50):
That's okay, Well, I'll give you I'll give you an
idea because This is something that a chef I know
tried to do here in Miami, and it was too
early for what they were attempting to do. They had
a psalm that was world renowned. She was just absolutely amazing.
So what they did was they recorded her presenting these
(24:11):
wines and they put it on a big touch screen
TV in their restaurant, so you could go select the
Pino Noir or them R Low or whatever, and when
you tap it, she would come on screen and give
you the explanation of the wine. And I'm thinking, wait
a minute, Ai, you know some sort of interaction you
could have. Maybe that's the way to get your som
(24:33):
into your you know, more fast casual concept.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Think about it.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
She failed at it, but you know, hey, everybody learns
from the early days.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
So Okay, so we've seen the transition. You guys are
moving in the right direction here in terms of best
casual find dining. You're kind of going with a lot
of models here. Which one do you feel has the
leg to truly scale and are you planning to do that?
Speaker 6 (25:04):
I think it's fast casual, Like I said, it's easiest
to replicate and scalability is there.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
We have.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
We're still working out of a building a program, building
the structure to where it is copy and paste, where
where mister Baron could go in, open a book and
be like, all right, I can make this chicken, right, Yeah,
have all the ingredients right in front of me. I
have all the instructions everything, So all the steps of service,
every single little thing. If you can build a bible
that has everything in it that anyone can walk in
(25:34):
and learn, like.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
A franchise operations manual for sure.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
So what's the idea behind instead of just going with one?
Like you said, the fast casual has the leg so
just concentrating on that one. Why do you think it's
important to have that fine dining and the casual and
the fast casual all three.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
It's all about building your name.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
I think kind of being versatile having the fine dining,
it puts you on that pedestal being like, how these
guys know what they're doing, right? So, I mean at
the end of the day, I think that's that's more
of a passion project, right because you know we're culinary.
We're very passionate about the culinary arts. We have a
team of chefs that this is their livelihood right. Their
(26:16):
bread and butter is getting that Michelin Star down the
road right. Yes, their dream for every single one of them,
and then and that's what I promise them that I'd.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
Help them get it right.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
So, so helping them out and it's does it costs
a lot at the end of it kind of puts
our brand on that pedestals as we're the top dogs
because Imrino was ranked Restaurant the Year in twenty twenty
two our first year opening I Eater magazine, where we've
been on Houston Chronicles top twenty five restaurants for the
last three years now two years.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
I think that it rank goes the first year.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Is it in the Woodlands as well?
Speaker 6 (26:49):
Yeah, yeah, so I'm talking about so it's in the Woodlands.
We're still considered part of Houston. When it came to
Michelin Guide coming to Texas, the rumor was they never
went out.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Of the metro.
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Yeah, so we are right on the cusp of where
it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Well, I think you know, there is there is history
here from brands that have done that. If you look
at Danny Meyer, what he did with his whole hospitality
group and was able to transition out Shakeshack. Then you
go over to Chicago and look at Rich Melman with
let us entertain you. I mean, they were a concept
that we're all fine dining, and then they started spinning
(27:27):
out all sorts of fast catual brand. I mean that's
where Jeff Alexander came from, you know, which is obviously wobow.
So it's interesting that that is the route you take
because we have not seen many of those kinds of successes.
So maybe you guys will be the next Rich Melman
and Danny Meyer.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Coming in.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Well, you got the right you got the right start,
that's for sure. I think the quality is there, You've
got the chef orientation, the branding seems to be on point.
When you look at the challenges, what do you feel
like this is the thing we have to overcome to
make it to the next level.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
I think it comes down to your nitty gritty numbers
in fast casual, and the branding is one of them, right,
Because when it comes to fast casual, every little detail
goes into your pricing.
Speaker 5 (28:17):
Right, how much of the box costs that you put
it in? Right? How is that plastic fork that I
just gave away costs? Right?
Speaker 6 (28:23):
So knowing all your numbers and being on top of it,
which is probably the biggest challenge is getting your pricing
right and being able to source it from somewhere that
is able to keep your pricing low. Right. So where
we bring all our boxes in are the person who
designed it, right. We have a team of quite extensive
team people overseas that kind of take care of everything
when it comes to that, right, So we're still able
(28:44):
to bring the highest quality stuff in just at a
cheaper price. So I think that's kind of the biggest
challenge going forward because now if we do plan on
doing multiple of these, that requires crates and crates and
containers on containers coming from overseas, which you know, my
first mean from Pock Put, Poe and Bowl. I remember
I took me the entire team of chefs at that time,
So it was about ten of us up till probably
(29:07):
four in the morning, with you bringing it in from
the port ourselves, right, just a little bit of money.
It was a forty two thousand pound palette of just
paper goods.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
A boxing.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Oh my god, every.
Speaker 6 (29:19):
Little thing that goes into each order. Yeah, we got
custom made, right. So I think that's what makes us
kind of kind of special as well.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah do you think?
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Okay, so you're you're talking about the details, getting down
into the grain in a side of the unit economics,
what is the size of a restaurant or bowl and
for pock pok poe in terms of what do you
need for square footage to be able to operate.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
I want to go much smaller than what we have
right now.
Speaker 6 (29:43):
Like I said, our kitchen is very big over here,
given that we're planning at that centralized facility for everything
for catering and then onto the next puck up poll bowls.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
I think the wingstop model of what I.
Speaker 6 (29:57):
Think they just call it a wingstop Express, but I
think that's the future, right because we've converted a pop
up poe into kind of a self serve kiosk environment, right,
but a little different given that is sure you need
someone to serve you it, but the idea of the
model where someone can come in because people don't like
being as verbal nowadays, right, that's why door dash and
(30:17):
gub eats are doing so well. Nobody wants to even
leave their house to interact with people, right, So being
able to walk in, touch on a screen, a few
buttons and if you have it set up correctly, right,
and that within ten minutes without talking to anyone.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
That's kind of the future, right.
Speaker 6 (30:30):
So I think any space that just you can put
a counter in and maybe a few friars, so less
than a thousand square feet.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
So really going really going tuned into that convenient side
of things, but elevating the quality that's coming out. I
think this is well, it's interesting that you say that,
because this is something that I'm noticing more and more
in the space. Sarah, what about you? Are you catching
this idea of everybody trying to get faster and more convenient?
Speaker 4 (30:57):
Yeh, think faster and smaller, less dining rooms. Technology, the Kiosks.
I mean, you know, my our parent company has a
magazine called Kioskmarketplace dot com that we have been covering
this forever and we kept thinking, you know, five years
ago is kind of dying, but it's exploded again and
so it's Kiosks everything, and we're ordering on the phone.
(31:18):
If the Kiosks, you know, if people don't want to
make that investment. Obviously a lot of these restaurants are
trying to go into airports and concert venues and you
know where that technology makes a lot of sense, So
I think that's you're definitely on the right track.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, heyret listen, this is first of all, congrats on everything.
You guys are doing amazing concepts for you guys that
are watching or maybe listening in on the podcast right now.
Check it out all and pok pok po there in
Houston next time. I'm in Woodland Hills. A friend of
mine has a place out on Comra Lake, So Lake Conra,
(31:52):
I guess it is, so it's not very far from you,
so I definitely got to swing by for sure.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
I would love to have you guys, and I'd love
for you guys to experience pop phone.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Pred It's been great having you on. Thanks for coming
in today. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (32:05):
Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it, you bet.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
All right, So we'll get into the last part here,
and I think one of the things. First of all,
I'm so glad we finally had a fine dining concept on.
I think that's the first one that we've had on
the show. Yeah, that was spinning out into fast Casual
because this is something that we've seen a lot of
in the history of fast casual some of the best
brands ever have come out of fine dining concepts Jake Shack.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
And a lot more.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
So I think we're going to see so much in
the way of opportunity around this. Sharah, what is going
on at Fastcasual dot com.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
We are busy, busy. We wrote reported today about Starbucks.
They're testing their AI tool for the baristas so they
can just basically immediately ask, you know, what's the ingredient
and you know this tea or whatever.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
They're doing that in and thirty thirty different restaurants, and
I assume that they will be rolling that out, so
it sounds like a no brainer.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
So that's kind.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Of seeing some of the robotic I was in Austin
this last week and I saw some of the robotic
baristas in the airport and I tried.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
It and it did you like it?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
And the coffee was good? So I was like, okay, yeah,
I'm okay.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
I mean, I think Starbucks is the best of both
worlds doing it this way because they're still using humans
and they still love that hospitality and like the you know,
the cool vibe of being in Starbucks, but it just
makes it faster and easier for them.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
So well, it looks like it's going to be a success.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Well, tech is obviously moving so quickly, and I'm hearing
so much of this whole robotic phase that's coming in.
I hope that you guys report more on that because
I'm intrigued as to whether or not that's going to
be a real thing in the you know, in the
future for fast casual and where it's going from there.
I know you guys also had a huge marketing thing.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Yeah, we had a restaurant market We had a restaurant
marketing workshop last week in Indianapolis.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
It was awesome.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
It was a smaller organic The takeaways were basically that
you have to be hands on with your with your marketing, and.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Yeah, you can't put on an autopilot and I have
done that.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Yeah yeah, I mean a lot of people have, you know,
and you've got to control that basically responding to every customer,
whether it's negative or positive, especially if it's negative, because
you can turn those negatives into your top customers.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
So that was great.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
We had a great session on social media where we
gave lots of tips, so that that was really cool.
And you can read about there's a takeaway on the
website on Fast Casual the thirteen social media tips that
that we kind of taught. So people if they missed it,
they can they can check out those actual like thirteen
tips that you can go do tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
So it's not I mean you have to invest in.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
It's just little things that that make the difference.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
I got them right here, go local Facebook and brand
with Instagram.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
So I like the go local idea. This is something
I think it's coming back.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Is Yeah. I think a lot of a lot of
marketers were talking about, you know, do you give your franchisees,
your local franchises the power to do their own social
media and some of them were Some of them said yes,
but you have to set up guidelines obviously, and some
of them said, you know, you can go local Facebook,
but maybe keep it corporate on the Instagram. So it
(35:33):
was just interesting to see what people were thinking.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
I'm looking at some of these last items. This is interesting.
Embrace smart gifting.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
So oh yeah, so they were Yeah, they were talking
about like you don't always have to give away free stuff,
you know, yeah, you can give away be the first
to try this food or you know, something like that.
Other than just giving cubons. Yeah, a lot of the
brands were thinking like giving up too much stuff under
reminds the.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Value exactly well, and it's often the it's like the
go to for a bad experience. Somebody just automatically says, oh, well,
let me do this for you, you know, and give
you free food mainly instead of really trying to address
it with more of a memorable, you know, effort. So
I agree with that. I think that's a good one.
And then don't count out email. It's it's email still works.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Email still works, and especially if you've got the if
you're trying to grow your loyalty platform program, they you know,
are doing hand in hand at really sending those messages
through the email to get them to sign up for
your loyalty platform.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Seems to still be working.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Yeah, listen, if you guys are not over on the
email list or fastcasual dot com, you should be. All
you have to do is just visit fastcasual dot com
right there. You guys can get in there and get
your inbox full of the great stuff coming out of
Fastcasual dot Com. All right, guys, we're gonna wrap this
one up, but we've got a big lineup this summer,
(36:59):
come from a variety of brands, a lot of interesting
topics around all sectors in Fast Casual. You do not
want to miss it. So if you're not subscribed to
the show right now, just take a minute subscribe to
the show. If you're here on YouTube, click subscribe right below,
and if you're over on the podcast side of things
and you're listening, you can also just subscribe to the
(37:19):
show over there and leave us a note let us
know if you like it's what do you think we
should be doing on the show. And if we haven't
got a guest on here that you want, then us
a note which is just producer at Saver dot fm.
And of course you can always reach out to share.
What's your email Shara.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Share a C at networldmediagroup dot com, so c H
E R R y h C at networldmediagroup dot com.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
If you guys have a breaking story or you have
something really cool to announce, this is the lady.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Yes, tell me, we will break it for you and
then we'll break here on the podcast again.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
All right, guys, we'll catch you next time right here.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
As Casual nations,
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